Realcent.org

Here's a cool website for figuring out how much your copper pennies are worth based on the current price of copper.

http://coinapps.com/copper/penny/calculator/

Nice site and it confirms what I already knew about Canadian .999 nickels- namely that they are worth over 6 cents each right now, even at these depressed prices.

Mr. Steve that made me wonder about the current chaos in Venezuela. I know the paper money is not worth anything but how are they treating their coins? Even if they're made of steel or aluminum (I'm too rushed to look it up now) they should hold their value better than the toilet paper money. Since all paper money eventually fails it seems wise for most Americans to just keep all the change they receive. Something is better than nothing, right?

Have you long-term members ever guessed how many people are actually sorting for 95% copper pennies? (Ha! That might be harder to estimate than Merton's attempt to estimate the amount of 90% silver left. Great book, by the way.)

Hey Contradiction:

Glad you like the book. For others, he is referring to The Big Silver Melt (by Henry A. Merton). It is one of the best books I've ever read.

I've thought about what you are saying about coins from countries that have major issues with inflation. I think part of the issue has to do with the weight of the coin. For instance, look at Italian (lira) coins used before they adopted the Euro. Lots of these were made of super lightweight aluminum (or some other lightweight item like tin). Kitcometals.com shows that aluminum is currently worth 95 cents a pound. These coins are so light that you could have quite a few before you'd even have one pound. I'll leave the calculations to others. I just remember holding up lira coins and feeling they were so lightweight that they felt like play money.

For coins made of stuff like silver, things are totally different, even if the coins are considered obsolete.

You mentioned Venezuela. A couple other problem countries to look at are Argentina and Zimbabwe. Argentina announced today that they have raised their official interest rate from a whopping 45% (per year) to an even more eye popping 60%. Zimbabwe printed bills in 2008 that had the highest denomination ever printed on a piece of currency- 100 trillion dollars. I keep one of those notes in my wallet as a conversation piece. I bought it in 2009 as a collector's item for about $3.25. Now they are selling actively on eBay for $60+ each. You can get "cheaper" denominations (like $1 billion) for perhaps $2-5 each. You might want to get one on eBay and carry it around as a conversation piece.

You know the watering up and down of au/ag coinage from roman times. All countries are pretty much on board. They don't want coin face value to exceed it's metal value. My friend has been to China and watched people drop their change on the ground after transaction because it's not even worth the time to carry it, collect it, return it to bank, etc.

Venezuela is currently using copper or nickel plated steel for it's coinage. But their two highest denomination coins do have a copper/nickel center and brass ring.

We need to keep in mind the amount of metal in the penny is not indicative of true value because it's brass. I get something like 60% of copper price on brass that I bring to scrapyard. Still I think brass pennies are an easy way for us to take a copper position, since they are 95% copper, but clean copper wire, pipe, etc. is way better when you consider ease of actually getting something for it, or cashing it in at a price top.

Thanks everything and Mr. Steve, I've got so much to learn.

Now I'm going to start another thread because I've got a great story to share with you guys.